DESCRIPTION: Epidemiological studies of successive pregnancies and births to the same woman are needed to effect improvements in perinatal outcomes. Yet, maternally linked data sets are not generally available to the medical and public health research community. Under the present application, a maternally linked data set will be developed and made available to researchers on CD-ROM. Analytic aids and training modules will be developed in Phase II to increase the research potential of the linked data set. Probabilistic record linkage methods will be used to develop the linkages for the 1988-1997 North Carolina birth and fetal death cohort. Infant death records and selected Medicaid and WIC information will be included with the birth records. Several sources of external data will be used to validate the linkages and to resolve outstanding questions about the utility of external validation and about the introduction of bias through the validation process. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: NOT AVAILABLE